Art Cummings: Good deeds overwhelm insensitive acts

Published 8:31 pm, Friday, November 22, 2013

The aftermath of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown last December has revealed the impressive best and the shocking worst of human nature.

Fortunately, the overwhelming response has been positive -- ranging from support from President Barack Obama, Gov. Dan Malloy and other governmental leaders to the selfless involvement of local officials, community residents and far-off strangers.

And grieving families and other Newtown residents have established numerous groups and foundations to create a positive legacy for slain loved ones.

Sadly, however, the dark side of human nature has appeared all too many times since Dec. 14, 2012, shocking the public and causing greater pain and suffering for those already deeply wounded.

It was probably not surprising that someone would try to turn a profit after the unspeakable tragedy in Sandy Hook, where 20 innocent first-graders and six brave educators were gunned down by Adam Lanza.

Nonetheless, most of us were appalled when a New York woman played on the goodness and generosity of mankind by posing as a grieving family member and setting up a charity to rake in some cash for herself. She was arrested and eventually sentenced to eight months in prison.

Equally appalling has been the campaign of some zealots who, for political reasons, have perpetrated the lie that the Sandy Hook tragedy was a hoax created to give Obama a launching pad for anti-gun legislation.

The sad truth is that a fair number of Americans believe that lie, as recently discovered by a couple of friends of mine who were traveling down south. They told me that when they informed some folks they were from Connecticut, the response was that they were from the state where there had been that fake mass shooting.

There are a number of other examples of insensitive behavior following the Sandy Hook shootings, starting with the verbal harassment of a grieving father of a first-grade victim by gun-rights activists in Hartford as he testified in favor of sensible gun-safety legislation earlier this year.

Another example of callous, thoughtless behavior occurred recently when a group announced it planned to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings by holding several gun-rights rallies, possibly including one in Newtown. Fortunately, the group backed off in the face of public outrage.

Two more incredibly insensitive incidents occurred in the past week.

An online video game, "The Slaying of Sandy Hook Elementary," was released a week or so ago and gave gamers the opportunity -- should they be so sick as to exercise that opportunity -- to re-enact Lanza's murderous rampage at his home, where he killed his mother, and at the school.

Powerfully negative reaction to the video game came from all corners -- from Newtown First Selectwoman Pat Llodra to the National Rifle Association -- and the game was taken down.

Words like abhorrent, reprehensible, disgusting, insensitive, shocking, sickening and incomprehensible were among those used -- quite accurately -- to describe the game and the individual who created it.

Similar words were used this week to describe the utterly despicable Facebook comment posted Tuesday by a Brookfield man in response to a proposal for 26 Days of Kindness to honor the Sandy Hook victims.

Gregory Beck, a 26-year-old emergency dispatcher at the Brookfield Police Department, offered this contribution to the 26 Days of Kindness: "I shall buy my friends who are gun enthusiasts a box of ammunition for days 1-26."

The community responded swiftly and strongly to his message, and Beck -- who, believe it or not, is a Brookfield Board of Education member-elect -- took down the post and apologized for what he admitted was his "insensitive and completely indefensible" behavior. However, despite displaying such poor judgment and despite calls for him to step down, Beck plans to serve his term on the school board.

In all of these cases, one just has to wonder: What were these individuals and groups thinking?

Where is their concern and caring for other human beings?

Where is their compassion?

But the good news is that in every instance, legal officials or public opinion stopped these folks in their tracks and minimized the damage done or planned.

Hopefully, going forward, there will be no more of these outrageous, insensitive acts, and the focus in the Newtown community can be concentrated on paying tribute to those who died by performing good deeds and making society a more humane, compassionate place.

Art Cummings is editor emeritus of The News-Times. He can be contacted at 203-731-3351 or at acummings@newstimes.com.